November ended with me being in the hospital. I had pneumonia. It was apparently bacterial but what ever, it was deadly. I went in on Nov.26th and finally got home on Dec. 13th. I learned only later how serious it was in that June called my children and they came to visit. I was again grateful to the Lord for giving me another opportunity to serve him since from what I understand the doctors had done all they could and the surviving rested on prayers and my good fortune. So the Thanksgiving thoughts became realities in a very short time.
Going home was finally agreed upon when they eliminated the need for me to go to a rehabilitation house and felt that June with the help of Home Health Care could manage. We have since improved sufficiently that even the Home Health Care nurse has decided she need not return! I also have a physical therapist coming and I am now back with exercising. Today (12/30) I took about a half-hour walk with June.
Another wonderful first occurred as the year drew to a close. On Wednesday evening Dec. 20th we were serenaded as we sat on our porch by “Carolers”, some 20 children with Pastor Mark, a guitarist, Lee Martin and a number of adults. I had hoped to attend the Christmas Eve service but the Doctor thought we should stay away from crowds for a while since there’s lots of flu going around and my resistance is not very high. So we did so. The caroling was one way of celebrating the birthday of Christ but we were blessed with even a better celebration. Our good friends Jim and Lynn Doto always have a birthday party on Christmas Eve for Jesus with their two sons, James and Joseph. They brought the party to our house. We had cake put candles on it and sang ‘Happy Birthday Jesus’ Being confined to the house, except for the occasional walks and having to rest every couple of hours is difficult. It’s another good example of how reasons doesn’t always control our conduct. I have no doubts of the reasonableness of the instructions to rest often and not over do, to use the oxygen tube any time I lay down, etc. They are all correct and helpful. But despite the knowledge of such the spirit wants me to quietly ignore the instructions and believes it is able to do as it wishes. It is like ridding one self of an addiction. It takes will power not just the knowledge of it being right. So I continue to work on that and with the help of a loving June am doing a bit better every day.
Christmas Eve brought memories of the many before today’s. But this one will be remembered now as the day that I walked a ‘whole block’. It was tough to concentrate even on computer games. But as the days began to past and strength started returning I finally found I could concentrate and read. I chose an old book. One published in 1972, which I kept to read again sometime. This was to be the time though I couldn’t swear I hadn’t done so in the past 35 years. It was reminiscence of John F. Kennedy by two of his closest friends and associates, Ken O’Donnell and Dave Powers. They entitled it “Johnny We Hardly Knew Ye” which is a line from an Old Irish song. The line appeared on a poster that was held up in the air by a fan in early 1963 as they left Ireland after a visit. Ken and Dave were with him as helpers and associates from 1946 onward. They were riding in the car behind his on that tragic day in Dallas in 1963.
The book accented John’s humor and intellectual approach to all problems. John Kennedy had not initially had any thoughts of being active in politics. His family had always been involved with both grandparents serving in some capacity in the Democratic Party of Boston. So it was natural that one of Kennedy boys would be so involved. That duty fell easily on Joseph the natural glad hander and outgoing member of the clan. Joe died a hero in a plane crash in 1944. In 1945 John was a senior at Harvard and had written a best seller entitled “While England Slept” It was thoughts he garnered while working with his father in London. His father was for a time the ambassador to the Court of England. John wanted to be a writer and teacher, not a politician. He was a reporter for the Hearst Syndicate at the United Nations Conference in San Francisco. That experience led him to be drawn with reluctance in to politics. He told someone that whether you like it or not the place where you can personally do the most to prevent another war was in political office. So in 1946 when the opportunity came due to a vacancy in the 11th Congressional District with he help of friends like O’Donnell and Powers he filed for the office. The rest as the say is “history”. They had many stories of John enjoying humor. One incident I liked written by the authors was: “There was never another political celebrity who was as sincerely unpretentious or who took him self less seriously. One night during the 1960 campaign he was speaking to a crowd of farmers in Sioux City, Iowa, where his clipped Cape Cod accent with it broad and flat a sounds and rolling r’s seemed comically out of place. He reached a climax in his oration on agricultural depression with a shouted question, ’What’s wrong with American fah-mah today?’ He stopped for a momentarily dramatic pause, and down from the balcony loud and clear came a reply from a comical listener in a perfect imitation of the New England accent, ‘He’s stah-ving!’ The hall rocked with laughter, but nobody in the crowd was laughing harder than Jack Kennedy himself. He was doubled up and stamping around the platform. There was not much seriousness in the rest of his speech.”
John Kennedy suffered a spinal injury when his PT-109 boat was laid low by a Japanese destroyer. It continued to give him pain and then he developed an infection. He was hospitalized from October 1954 till March of 1955. His condition was so serious that on three occasions he was given the last rites. During his convalescence he continued to work on an idea for an article on political courage. He expanded the article to a book. He did all the research himself. As Dave Powers noted he had a room full of books. The book was written and entitled “Profiles in Courage” and won a Pulitzer Prize in 1957. I have seen references to it even today some fifty years later.
The biggest issue seeming to prevent him from running for President was his religion. A Catholic, it was believed, could not or would not be elected to that office. During his campaign JFK met this issue, with a historical speech on the separation of Church and State. He made it to a conference of Evangelical ministers in Houston, Texas. He may not have convinced the Ministers but there was no doubt that he removed that objection from the minds of many voters. Before the campaign in 1957 he was elected to the Board of Overseers of Harvard University. His father commented, “If an Irish Catholic can get elected as an overseer at Harvard, he can get elected to anything.”
I have shared some of the book with you since they were things I had forgotten about JFK. I do remember he was an exception in that he did all his own writing. He often included an appropriate quote. One I liked was: “There are three things which are real; God, human folly, and laughter. The first two are beyond our comprehension so we must do what we can with the third.” An unnamed Indian philosopher wrote it. Speaking of his doing his own writing an incident occurred when he was interviewing Bob MacNamara for the job of Secretary of Defense. Mr. MacNamara had admired “Profiles in Courage” He asked JFK if he had written Profiles without the help of a ghost. He was then the president of Ford Motor Company. He commented to the press after his appointment that “When the president of Ford makes a statement to the press it has to be prepared and edited by the public relations department and approved by the vice-president in charge of public relations. Its nice when you can just pick up a ball-point pen and write it yourself.” He like many others was impressed with JFK relying on his own writing without a ‘ghost’ or a ‘pr’ man.
Recalling things about JFK also brings back memories of my own political ambitions around the same time. I recall one incident particularly. I was standing on a street corner telling a crowd of about 15 why they should vote for JFK. I can’t remember any of my talk but I remember seeing a familiar face in the back of the crowd. I couldn’t place him then but did later. He was Michael Stack’s dad. Mike and I had been together in College and Law School. His dad had been a Congressman during Roosevelt’s time. Mike later ran Mayor Tate’s mayoralty campaign and his son of the same name became a State Senator, and may still be. But I still recall with a bit of pride and awe that I got a former Congressman’s attention at least for a short while. But then it could be that he only stood and listened since I was a friend of his son! Until next time Pax Tecum!